Scandal of 'phantom' aid money

ActionAid has issued a report suggesting that 61 percent of aid flows are 'phantom' --not actually helping to relieve poverty in the developing World. The charity includes in its 'phantom' calculation debt relief (it labels this an 'accounting exercise'), money paid to overseas consultants and tied aid.

The report accused rich countries of 'political grandstanding' and highlighted the ways in which they were disguising how real aid flows were even lower than they appeared to be.
'Failure to target aid at the poorest countries, runaway spending on overpriced technical assistance from international consultants, tying aid to purchases from donor countries' own firms, cumbersome and ill-coordinated planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting requirements, excessive administrative costs, late and partial disbursements, double counting of debt relief, and aid spending on immigration services all deflate the value of aid,' the charity said.

What is even outrageous is that when all the money is spent on misguided projects, the blame falls on the countries receiving aid. Mismanagement, corruption are just a few labels tagged on poor countries.

Have the donor countries ever wondered wether the have a whole army of so called experts on a feeding frenzy that only leaves crumbs for the very people they purport to be assisting?